Soviet Toilet Paper Revolutionaries

Remember my profile of Pat Singer, a community leader in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach? She talked about the shock she experienced upon the arrival of all these paranoid Soviet immigrants who were used to widespread shortages. Singer said: “What the hell is this? They were rude and pushy in the grocery stores, grabbing for toilet paper, not realizing it would still be there tomorrow.”

Well, I just uncovered a great photo to illustrate said point.

This photograph was taken by Dmitry Borko in the fall of 1990, during shortages in Moscow. A little more about the photographeris here.

I love how the beret and the chain of toilet paper across her chest make her look like a revolutionary wearing a sash of ammunition. See Pancho Villa, Mexican Revolutionary, below: